a little rain never hurt anyone, right?

Jun 9

Richard opening the set as the rain cleared for the show.

Where do I begin?

About a week before the show, I was looking at weather given that I was bringing expensive gear with me to film, and on top of that, the bands were bringing equipment that’s not easily replaceable to an outdoor venue. “Looks like the rain should clear up a bit before the show starts, might only be a drizzle,” I told Richard of PTC before continuing my day. Throughout the week, I was beyond stoked to film and photograph an event like this. I’ve done a festival before but barely knew what I was doing when it came to filming. Lonely Roads was a test run for my outdoor ability and I think I did ok. But this show was going to be big, for me and for the bands.

Richard handing the mic to the crowd to sing along.

The day of the show

Mia messaged me to see when I’d be there and give me an update, and right after she messaged me, Richard said, “Maybe hold off till I see what’s going on?” But this is me, I’ve photographed couples on mountain tops during thunderstorms, shot in mosh pits that I couldn’t stand up in, and snapped landscapes in the middle of a hurricane… a little rain was not holding me off in the least. I got in my car and started the two-hour drive with anticipating the clear skies to come after the storm would pass. Yea, right. There was this one time I went to Blue Ridge Rock Fest — this was a mini BRRF lol. The rain was heavy, the mud was loose, and the mess was crazy. Rain pooled on drum heads, mics were cutting in and out and the whole show was nothing but a rain room with people on ramps falling all over the place. It. Was. EPIC.

Brenden and Richard trying to get the drums and the IEM working, as well as Vincent’s Helix.

Can we talk technical difficulties??????

It’s time for PTC to hit the stage! But at a cost — two songs were cut from the set, and here’s why: As I jump on the stage to grab photos of Brenden, the entire stage was a flooded puddle of just solid electrocution waiting to happen — bare plugs, outlet strips just hanging out under dripping tents… it was a good time. I look to Brenden, and all I hear is “I have no sound,” and I turn to the right and hear Richard go, “There’s only 4 plugs and the system runs on 8.” And then seconds later, the sky opens up. Daniel is trying to fix his pedal board, Jimmy from Scooped Up is yelling to me to pull in the amps, Brenden is running around trying to get the backing vocals running, all while two mics stopped working. Stress levels are high and the cherry on top was the mixer frying out as the set started. The inputs and outputs of the mixer fill up with so much water that it looks like a beer pint when the foam falls down the side of the glass. It was a mess.

the show must go on

As the rain clears, and the ground floods with people, the set half-starts a few times before finally opening with “Breathing Is The Hardest Part” and you hear crackling vocals as the pooling water shocks the system. Standing behind Brenden, I look out to a crowd of restless people who’ve heard the intro to the set about 5 times already. Trying to move around the stage, all I can see is signs of stress as the band plays on 2 mics, and the cut outs were REAL. It reminded me of a time where I used to have a CD player and wired headphones, and one of the wires would be kind of loose, and parts of the song switched in and out until I held the cable in the perfect position. That's exactly what the set was like throughout two of the songs as one of the mics cut in and out.

Even though the technical difficulties were at an all time high, the show did go on. There were a couple of other issues PTC faced during their set. As I stood on stage left, I could hear the speakers just cracking and cutting in and out like crazy as the water pooled inside of all the inputs just completely destroyed all the electronics. After running out to the front, the crowd started to actually find the energy to move around and put their hands up and enjoy the show. At one point, Richard brought his little sister on stage because she wanted to stage dive, and then at the last second, decided her nerves were a bit too much and she couldn't do it. But you could see her in the crowd from time to time singing along with the songs, enjoying the show. When the last song played, the energy was extremely high, the crowd got close to the stage, and they were able to finish with kind of a bang. After it was all over it was agreed, everything that could've gone wrong did. But the members of PTC are nothing if not determined. They didn’t quit and walk away. Instead, they pushed through all these obstacles with utmost professionalism. How many “successful” bands fold when the odds are stacked against them…?

On the plus side, PTC finished strong and no one was electrocuted! Yay, right? Let me know in the comments if you were there. Would you have played under this type of stress? Would you go to a festival if it POURED to this point? Let me know what you think of the event!